Opening iBook. Shortens life expectancy?

As long as you are careful there should be no difference in upgrading your ibook yourself.

Please remember that while you may read forum posts suggesting this causes problems, you are only seeing a very, very small minority of people. The thousands and thousands of people that upgrade their iBooks succesfully don't log onto forums to post about it!

Your iBook is made from considerably more durable materials than most PC boxes.

If the work is done carefully and well, you have nothing to fear.

Rich

I don't think opening it will necessarily shorten the life expectancy. It depends on how good (and how careful) the repair technician is.

If you're still under your one-year warranty, I might hesitate about doing it, though. Although it wouldn't necessarily void your warranty, it's possible that Apple could claim that anything that went wrong with it afterward was a result of the self-upgrade.

You've taken apart many PC laptops? My son has two Dell laptops, and they are a completely different thing. They have modular parts that are easily changed. The iBook has been built for compactness and portability. Upgradeability kind of went out the window in favor of the other two features.

Take a look at the iBook G4 hard drive upgrade instructions, and see if this is something you want to tackle:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/83.14.0.html

If so, good luck!

Hi Nfs2,

I am guessing you have noticed in the past I have mentioned that it increases the risk of future complications. Many will probably disagree, but I have noticed that the risk increases when the case is opened. When I say opened; it is more towards replacing things like hard drives, optical drives, and things of that nature. The iBook is the most durable/rugged laptop that I know of. I have seen iBooks (the G3 iBook) dropped down stairs, cement, knocked off tables, etc and still works fine. I am not suggesting that you go and drop kick your laptop, but the iBook is rugged.

An Apple Certified Technician has been trained to work specifically on Apple computers. They also take responsibility for any complications that the repair might have caused (doesn't really happen often). I would not think twice about giving my iBook or any of my other computers to an Apple Certified Tech (usually the Mac Geniuses at the Apple Store) because I trust them. Before I give them my iBook, I still take pictures and backup my hard drive just incase.

Some people don't take the proper precautions when they take apart their iBooks. iFixit (linked in a previous post) has some of the most well written/explained guides out there.

Jon

PS Life is unpredictable, who knows what could happen. If you noticed when I have mentioned this subject in the past, it is always when people want to replace their internal hard drives. If you look at the first sentence it says " I suggest getting an external hard drive over getting an internal because...". It is like a persuasive essay; I believe in external over internal. Don't forget that it is just an opinion.

Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All) , Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook , G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

Actually, the toughest consumer laptop would be the Panasonic Toughbook, which is almost the standard for a lot of companies which require rugged notebooks in the field. iBooks are nowhere as durable as Toughbooks, especially if you're talking about shock protection and waterproofness.

You can get their semi-rugged Toughbooks, which are slim and light enough yet is more rugged than the iBook 😀

If you don't mind slogging around in Windows…no, thanks. I'll take my iBook and be a little careful with it, thank you very much.

Just remember that if you do open your ibook yourself, you will void your warrenty (if you have any left).

I used to warn people about that, too. But I'm not certain any more that it's true. If you open it and cause damage to it, that damage will not be covered under the warranty--that much is for certain. And I would be a bit afraid that Apple would blame any subsequent problems on the fact that I had opened it. But, actually, I think that's the only real risk. If you open it and don't damage it in any way by doing so, it may not necessarily void your warranty.

Judge for yourself:

http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/hardware.html